The present invention relates generally to the field of optical communications, and more particularly to a connector assembly for interconnecting one or more integrated parallel optical transceiver devices with an array of optical fibers.
Optical fibers are becoming more commonly used for signal transmission in communications and information handling applications. Optical fibers provide a large increase in the signal transmission bandwidth of a transmission cable over a given distance when compared with the bandwidth provided by conventional wire transmission cables. Because optical transmission cables do not experience frequency-dependent attenuation of signals to the extent that conventional wire transmission cables do, a greater amount of signal data can be transmitted over optical transmission cables of comparable length. In addition, signal transmission through optical fibers provides improved density versus transmission through electrical wires, since, for a given bandwidth, the cross-sectional areas of optical fiber cables and connectors are significantly smaller than for comparable electrical cables. In information handling applications, such as computer systems having large information storage capabilities, optical fiber transmission cables are used to provide connections between units of the computer system in order to most efficiently transmit large amounts of information from unit to unit.
Connectors are used for joining light-transmitting optical fiber cables to transmitter devices, receiver devices, or to other cables. Optical fibers however, have the disadvantage of being more physically fragile in some respects than metallic copper wire. For example, there is a limit on the minimum bend radius to which an optical fiber may be bent or curved before degradation in the light transmission through the fiber occurs. The optical fiber begins to leak light from the core due to the bend in the optical fiber. This loss of light from the optical fiber thereby increases the attenuation of the optical signals within the optical fiber. In addition, internal micromechanical stresses in the optical fiber caused by the tight bending can also physically degrade the optical fiber by reducing the amount of mechanical stress the optical fiber may endure prior to breaking. Therefore the handling and routing of optical fibers and cables requires extra precaution to ensure that the optical fibers are reliable at initial installation and over time.